WPF Listbox: Change selected and unfocused style to not be grayed out

Question

I have a really simple WPF ListBox with SelectionMode set to Multiple.

<ListBox SelectionMode="Multiple" />

When the ListBox loses focus it's really hard to tell what's been selected because the selection colour changes from blue to a light grey colour. What's the easiest way of changing this behaviour so that it stays blue?

I know it's probably something to do with the ListItem's style, but I can't find where.

Cheers.

Similar: WPF ListView Inactive Selection Color

Answer 1

I have done something like this using the following in a merged ResourceDictionary, it may help you:

<Style TargetType="ListBoxItem">
    <Style.Resources>
        <!--SelectedItem with focus-->
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}" Color="LightBlue" Opacity=".4"/>
        <!--SelectedItem without focus-->
        <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}" Color="LightBlue" Opacity=".4"/>
    </Style.Resources>
</Style>

Answer 2

You can probably solve your problem by re-writing the Template, but try this for an easy patch.

<Style TargetType="ListViewItem">
  <Style.Resources>
    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}" Color="Blue" />
    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}" Color="Blue" />
  </Style.Resources>
</Style>

Answer 3

This is not an answer to the question, but I found this when I was looking for a way to disable selections in my listboxes. By using a slightly modified form of Guy's & bendewey's technique above, it turns out you can give the appearance of no selections in your listbox without replacing the underlying items control or anything like that. Here's the code I used:

<Grid.Resources>
  <Style TargetType="ListBoxItem">
    <Style.Resources>
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}" Color="White" />
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightTextBrushKey}" Color="Black" />
      <SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}" Color="White" />
    </Style.Resources>
  </Style>
</Grid.Resources>

I also found the following MSDN page helpful:

MSDN: SystemColors Members (System.Windows)

Thanks for the help, guys.